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By Norman Solomon

In CNN interview, the Democratic nominee stuck to echoing Biden’s rhetoric—calling for a ceasefire while dodging the reality that the U.S. government could force one by implementing an arms embargo on Israel.

Time is running out for Kamala Harris to distance herself from U.S. policies that enable Israel to continue with mass murder and genocide in Gaza. Polling shows that a pivot toward moral decency would improve her chances of defeating Donald Trump. But during her CNN interview Thursday night, Harris remained in lockstep with President Biden’s unconditional arming of Israel.

Two weeks ago, YouGov pollsters released findings in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, three swing states now on a razor’s edge between Harris and Trump. “In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for the Democratic nominee if the nominee vowed to withhold weapons to Israel, compared to 7 percent who said they would be less likely. The rest said it would make no difference,” the new journalism site Zeteo reported.

Results in the two other states were similar. “In Arizona, 35 percent said they’d be more likely, while 5 percent would be less likely. And in Georgia, 39 percent said they’d be more likely, also compared to 5 percent who would be less likely.”

But on CNN, Harris stuck to echoing Biden’s rhetoric—calling for a ceasefire while dodging the reality that the U.S. government could force one by implementing an arms embargo on Israel.

Huge U.S. shipments of weapons and bombs to Israel keep allowing it to massacre and starve civilians of all ages while violating federal statutes as well as international law. Days ago, Biden approved sending arms to Israel worth upwards of $20 billion. The transfers were called “sales,” but as policy analyst Stephen Semler pointed out, “most if not all of this matériel is paid for by U.S. taxpayers—Israel uses much of the military aid Congress approves for it effectively as a gift card to buy U.S.-made weapons.”

Just listening to Harris during her CNN interview, you’d be clueless about the realities that the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, spelled out in a statement midway through August: “The people of Gaza are now grieving 40,000 Palestinian lives lost, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Most of the dead are women and children. This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war. On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months. The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.”

Notably, Harris gave no indication of the number of Palestinian lives lost—while she did say that 1,200 Israelis, including “many young people,” lost their lives on October 7. That most of the Palestinians who died were children and women went unmentioned.

While the vice president said that Israelis were “massacred,” she relied on passive voice to say only that too many Palestinians “have been killed.”

After recording the interview, I transcribed it in full:

CNN’S Dana Bash: “President Biden has tried unsuccessfully to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He’s been doing it for months and months along with you. Would you do anything differently, for example would you withhold some U.S. weapons shipments to Israel? That’s what a lot of people on the progressive left want you to do.”

Harris: “Let me be very clear. I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself, and that’s not gonna change. But let’s take a step back. October 7. Twelve hundred people are massacred, many young people who are simply attending a music festival. Women were horribly raped. As I said then I say today, Israel had a right, has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a deal done. We were in Doha, we have to get a deal done, this war must end –”

Bash: “And in the meantime –“

Harris: “And we must get a deal that is about getting the hostages out. I’ve met with the families of the American hostages. Let’s get the hostages out. Let’s get the ceasefire done.”

Bash: “But no change in policy? In terms of arms and so forth.”

Harris: “No. We have to get a deal done. Dana, we have to get a deal done. When you look at the significance of this to the families, to the people who are living in that region, a deal is not only the right thing to do to end this war, but will unlock so much of what must happen next. I remain committed, since I’ve been on October 8, to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution, where Israel is secure and in equal measure the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity.”

When I heard Harris say “I remain committed,” I felt sure that the phrase “two-state solution” could not be far behind. For U.S. politicians and pundits, it has become a handy slogan to assert virtuous intent—rendered more and more absurd as Israel’s terroristic ethnic cleansing persists in Gaza and escalates in the occupied West Bank. And as genocide continues to gain momentum.

There is every reason to believe that Donald Trump—who said this summer that the president should let Israel “finish the job”—would be even worse than Biden as an accomplice to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian people. But that’s no reason to evade the unconscionable complicity of President Biden in the daily mass atrocities.

A suction tube of euphemisms and evasion has captured many a partisan mind. And so it was from the podium of the Democratic National Convention, when the usually admirable Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez descended into making the groundless claim that Harris “is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home.”

In sharp contrast, with horrors in Gaza continuing, fellow Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib has never taken the easy way out. As she has done countless times since last fall, on Thursday she sent out a truthful and disturbing message.

“Palestinian Americans feel invisible, with our trauma and pain unseen and ignored by both Democrats and Republicans,” Tlaib wrote. “We want action to stop the horrific massacres of our families and polling shows that, regardless of political party, the majority of Americans are with us. . . . Yet, even after over 600 weapons shipments since October, including fighter jets, high explosive mortars, and more, the Biden administration has approved another $20 billion in weapons for the Israeli military to commit well-documented war crimes and continue to murder Palestinian children and civilians.”

And Tlaib wrote: “An arms embargo to stop the genocide is not just the moral, just, and right thing to do. It is also good politics.”

Whether Kamala Harris will ever really get the message is unclear.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

31 August 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kevin Reed

The Israeli military fired a missile into the lead vehicle of an aid convoy in southern Gaza on Friday, killing four Palestinians.

The convoy was organized by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) and was delivering medical supplies and fuel to a hospital in Rafah, the besieged southern Gaza city on the border with Egypt.

A press release from Anera said, “An Israeli airstrike yesterday killed four Palestinians at the front of an Anera aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital.” The statement also said the transport plan had been “coordinated and cleared” with the Israeli military, including the presence of “unarmed security guards” in the convoy.

In a report in the Washington Post, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the missile strike was carried out “after identifying weapons aboard one of the trucks, adding that the four Palestinians were armed and hadn’t been included in the coordinated travel plan.”

The Anera statement said that initial reports from Move One, the transport company contracted to move the food, fuel and medical supplies, showed that “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security with Move One stepped forward and took control of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.”

Anera said the four Palestinians had not been vetted or coordinated in advance. However, contrary to the assertions of the IDF, initial reports after the missile strike at the scene show that no weapons were present. “The four individuals were not perceived by the convoy as a hostile threat. The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”

Anera said that none of its staff members were injured, and the convoy was able to continue on its way and complete the successful delivery of aid to the hospital in Rafah.

The missile strike in southern Gaza took place two days after a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) vehicle was fired upon as it approached an IDF checkpoint. In a similar setup by the IDF, the two armored vehicles had received “multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach” the Wadi Gaza bridge checkpoint, yet at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles. No one was injured.

In March, an Anera logistics coordinator in Gaza, Mousa Shawwa, was killed by an Israeli airstrike while he was in a shelter. The relief worker’s 6-year-old son, Karim, died 10 days later from injuries suffered during the attack. In April, three Israeli air strikes hit an aid convoy traveling through Gaza, killing seven World Central Kitchen workers.

According to the UN, more than 280 humanitarian workers have been killed by Israel during the onslaught on Gaza that began in October. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that the number of planned missions in August that had been denied by Israel had doubled since July.

The IDF strategy of approving aid workers to bring assistance to Palestinians and then targeting their vehicles with precision missile strikes is of a piece with the genocidal onslaught on the entire population in Gaza. Every criminal act carried out by Israel in Gaza has been carried out with lies about the presence of terrorists.

Terrorizing aid workers providing desperately needed assistance amidst the catastrophic conditions in Gaza is part of the system of forced evacuation and ethnic cleansing pursued by the Zionist state with the support and approval of its imperialist partners.

Palestinian families have been forced to relocate multiple times over the past ten months to so-called “safe zones” which now comprise approximately ten percent of the total land area of Gaza. Palestinians have been fired upon and murdered in the streets after leaving their homes or blown to bits with US-made 2,000 lb. bombs before they have time to evacuate.

Meanwhile, the war to uproot and kill Palestinians has been expanded by Israel from Gaza to the West Bank. The IDF reported Friday that Israeli forces have killed 20 people in the West Bank, claiming they were “terrorists,” in airstrikes and “exchanges of fire” since an incursion began Tuesday in the West Bank locations of Jenin, Tulkarm and the al-Fara’a refugee camp.

In what is described as the largest actions in the West Bank since the siege of Gaza began in October, hundreds of Israeli troops have moved into the areas, sometimes with air cover. The Israeli government claims the attacks are needed “to root out militant cells and destroy their infrastructure and weapons,” according the Washington Post.

The Post report continued, “Thousands of civilians have been affected, with families trapped in battle-shaken neighborhoods, often without water, electricity or internet,” and Israeli combat bulldozers have “plowed many of the area’s streets to rubble.”

31 August 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jay Janson

There is a universal principle of humanity that transcends religious and sociopolitical boundaries, emphasising the protection and care of children as a fundamental responsibility shared by all of humanity. This principle is rooted in the recognition of children’s vulnerability and their inherent right to safety, security, and the opportunity to grow and thrive.

Universal Empathy: The instinct to protect children is deeply embedded in human empathy. People across the world, regardless of their background, tend to respond with concern and a desire to help when they see children in danger or distress.

Israelis have become too numb and dumb in the thralls of their great power to kill to realise they are killing thousands of what amounts to their own children.

Israelis Have Forgotten that Children, by Universally Held Humanitarian Principles, Are Considered to Be Under the Protection of All of Us – That is, of Entire Humanity.

Israelis have as their leader a criminally insane unrepentant serial genocider of women and children

Israelis have come to believe their own propaganda about the Palestinian ‘Terrorists’ and October 7, 2023?

Of course, by the same reasoning, On October 7, 2023, Hamas invading freedom fighter guerrillas must also have been guilty of killing at least a few of what would amount to be their own children.

But for eleven months Israel has rained death. maiming and terror down upon a more than a million of God’s children in Gaza. As of mid-August 2024, UN reported that over 12,300 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza,

Moral and Ethical Responsibility: Across various cultures and ethical systems, there is a common moral imperative to protect children. This responsibility is often seen as inherent to our humanity — a duty to safeguard those who cannot protect themselves. The well-being of children is often considered a reflection of the moral health of a society.

The principle of protecting children is often highlighted in discussions about the laws of war, where there are specific prohibitions against targeting or involving children in hostilities.

However, Israelis have heard rabbis point out be better to kill the Arab children before they become adult warriors.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, the head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, for one, co-authored a book titled “Torat HaMelech” (The King’s Torah) in 2009. In this book, he and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur argue that it is permissible under certain circumstances to kill non-Jews, including children, if they pose a threat to Israel or Jews. The book suggests that even innocent children of the enemy may be killed to prevent them from growing up to become threats in the future.

The book and its ideas were met with significant controversy and condemnation, both within Israel and internationally, as many saw it as incitement to violence and a justification for acts that would constitute war crimes. Rabbi Shapira’s views are considered extreme, and they do not represent mainstream Jewish thought or the opinions of most rabbis…

…however, the influence of the Torah, often referred to as the Law of Moses, as the foundational text of Judaism cannot be denied, especially on attitudes regarding the daily death toll of children from the bombing of civilian structures throughout Gaza.

… and the Holy Hebrew Torah (first five books of the Bible) SEEMS TO BE IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO The BASIC PRINCIPAL OF THE SANCTITY OF THE LIVES OF CHILDREN

but let the reader judge for his/herself

Firstly, in the Book of Genesis, specifically in Genesis 15:18-21, God describes the boundaries of the land He is giving to the descendants of Abraham. This land is often referred to as the Promised Land and as being the land of other peoples at the time. Here is the passage:

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’”

The boundaries mentioned here are generally understood to extend from the Nile River (referred to as the “river of Egypt”) to the Euphrates River. This region encompasses a vast area that includes parts of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.

Secondly,The fourth book of the Torah or Bible, Deuteronomy 20:16–18 reads:

“Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you –15 “And Moses said to them, 17 “Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. 18 “But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.”

So one wonders about worshipers and children in church shaking tambourines and singing “Joshua ‘Fit the Battle of Jericho!” It is hard to imagine those singing so joyously the words “and the wall(s) come a’ tumblen’ down,” know what happened after the wall was down (shudder), as described in chapter six of the Book of Joshua 6:20-21

” … and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city,

every man straight before him, and they took the city.

6:21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”

The Book of Joshua continues with:

“11:11. They struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed… 12 Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 14 … They left no one who breathed. 15 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did;” [from the New Standard American Bible]

Whew! but wait, this is only one of many quotes from the Old Testament or Jewish Bible that call for the slaying of ‘everything that breathes.’ The First Book of Samuel reads:

“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.” 3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

As to scripture concerning human behaviour during a century B.C., barbarous behaviour and the terrorist execution of whole populations as a military tactic was common to that age. What is striking is that such inhumanity be worshipped as having been ordered and justly ordained by God.

Excepting the one above cited biblical contradiction, whether one works it out politically, religiously or anthropologically, ethically, it comes out the same. Children are most precious and belong to all of us.

Even zoologically, for in most species of animals, a stray offspring will be cared for by whichever adult is aware of a young one in need.

If you are dropping a bomb on someone’s residence aware of the presence of children, you are guilty of a crime against humanity.

Israeli ‘Defence Forces’ airmen, who release bombs to fall on children’s homes, schools and playgrounds, are they not dolts without brains enough to know what they are doing. In what kind of perverted society were they brought up? Taught not an “eye for an eye” but a ‘thousand or ten thousand eyes for an eye?’

This criticism applies to citizens of the United States of America, whose government knowingly, willingly and even proudly provides the bombs, missiles, artillery shells and war planes the Israelis use to kill, to maim and to terrify the million plus children of Gaza. The American military did the same to the children of Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq and other countries. Albert Einstein cautioned that

“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.” “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”

“October 7, 2023!” cries hegemonic Western media over and over and over again, as justification for what has been called genocide!  Genocide of an illegally militarily captive population no less! – 70% of which be children.

How many worse atrocities can the militarily occupied and bombed Palestinians recall of Israeli massacres of Arabs over the years. Already back In 1948, Albert Einstein condemned the horrific and terror producing massacre at Deir Yassin village by the terrorist gang Irgun and warned of the fascism of its leader President to be of Israel, Menachem Begin in a letter to the New York Times.

Will Americans ever be aware and ashamed that it’s government forced a ridiculous partition resolution through a fledgling United Nations, as a stratagem whose sole purpose and expectation was to torch British Mandate Palestine into a civil war the Jewish armed groups were well prepared for and with U.S. help would win. A single democratic state was blocked by the U.S.

What is the truth of Israel, which presently, with American and European complicity, currently slaughters at will defenceless captive Palestinian citizens and their children while refusing to even consider freeing Palestine?

Popular Former Israeli Minister of Defence Moshe Dayan Spoke the Truth at the Funeral of Roi Rotberg, April 19, 1956!

“Let us not today cast blame on the murderers. What can we say against their terrible hatred of us? For eight years, they have been sitting in the refugee camps of Gaza, and before their eyes, we have been turning the land and villages where they and their forefathers once lived into our own inheritance.”

Why Is Dayan’s Truthful and Compassionate Description of the Situation Not Accepted and Promoted in Israel and Beyond.

Instead, Israelis seem to freakily bask in the genocidal terrorism the U.S.A. has wreaked upon Israel’s Arab neighbours with wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Libya, as if these wars have brought apartheid Israel security. The harm or death of each child and the desperation of its families and friends, brings about whole nations mourning the loss of and harm to their children.

This writer mourns any child murdered anywhere, by any means, as his own precious child and seeks in his mind’s eye to imagine how each child appeared when alive, while lamenting the suffering of the child’s family and friends.

Post Script:

In the previous war in Gaza of 2014, more than 500 Palestinian children were killed and one Israeli child.

As with the ongoing scale of destruction: that previous conflict caused extensive damage to Gaza’s infrastructure, with thousands of homes, schools, and hospitals destroyed or severely damaged. The United Nations reported that over 100,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of the fighting. The present genocidal and obliterating cataclysm is already more than ten times as great and growing.

The 2023-2024 cataclysm by comparison is an intensive extermination of Palestinians especially their children.

Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist,  musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India, in Germany & Sweden Einartysken,and in the US by Greanville Post, Dissident Voice; Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents; Minority Perspective, UK,and others; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong’s Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. Is coordinator of the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign, and website historian of the Ramsey Clark co-founded Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign, https://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com/which contains a history of US crimes in 19 nations from 1945 thru 2012.

2 September 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kevin Reed

The US political establishment responded to the deaths of six Israeli hostages in Gaza on Saturday with demands for an intensification of the genocide against Palestinians and expansion of war in the Middle East. After the Israeli military confirmed the six bodies retrieved from a tunnel in Rafah were  hostages, President Biden issued a statement saying, “Make no mistake. Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”

Vice President and Democratic Party nominee for President Kamala Harris issued her own statement from the White House. She said, “Hamas is an evil terrorist organization” that has “even more American blood on its hands.” Harris continued, “The threat Hamas poses … must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza.”

The killing of the six hostages dominated US news media coverage all day on Sunday, the same media that largely ignores the far greater daily death toll from Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. These reports uncritically echoed the statements of the Israeli military about the details of the deaths, although such statements have repeatedly been proven false in the past.

Speaking to Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning, Republican Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, called for an extension of the war into Iran. “If you want the hostages home, which we all do, you have to increase the cost to Iran. Iran is the great Satan here,” Graham said.

The senator continued to say that specific acts of war to “hold Iran responsible” were required, including a target list of “oil refineries in Iran.”

A mass protest of more than 500,000 people erupted in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening demanding that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end the war in Gaza. News organizations reported that this is the largest demonstration in Israel since the genocide began eleven months ago.

Chanting “Now, Now,” the protesters called for an immediate ceasefire that would enable release of the remaining hostages. Israel’s trade union federation Histradrut has called for a general strike on Monday that will shut down major sectors of the economy including banking, health care and transportation.

While Netanyahu accused Hamas of stalling ceasefire negotiations, the US-backed Israeli military operation has maintained its blockade of Gaza and continued to carry out targeted air strikes against Palestinians in pursuit of its barbaric goal of “total victory.”

Through Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry that the death toll has reached 40,602 since October 7 of last year and another 93,855 have been wounded. Israel’s ethnic cleansing operation has displaced the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and plunged the 141 square mile strip into a humanitarian catastrophe.

In northern Gaza, two Palestinians were killed and others were injured after Israel’s military attacked a house in the al-Tawbah area of the Jabalia refugee camp. Earlier, an Israeli air strike hit the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza City, killing at least three people and wounding dozens. Israeli forces also targeted the Tuffah area, east of Gaza City.

Combing through the rubble after an attack on a hospital complex in northern Gaza City, a civil defense agency worker condemned the latest medical facility attack by Israel’s army, in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“This constitutes yet another war crime, added to the many crimes committed by the military in the Gaza Strip,” the unidentified man said. “The Israeli warplanes targeted and destroyed the building end-to-end at the al-Alhi Arab Hospital. It remains the only medical facility catering to patients and the wounded in Gaza City since al-Shifa Hospital was flattened by the army.”

In southern Gaza, dozens of people were reported killed in Israeli raids, including 27 Palestinians who were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, Israel has expanded its bloody military operations in the West Bank that began on Wednesday.

Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated raids on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, long a bastion of Palestinian resistance to Israel’s decades-old illegal occupation of the territory.

Bashir Matahen, director of public relations and media in the municipality of Jenin, said Israeli forces have bulldozed more than 70 percent of the city’s streets. News reports say that 80 percent of Jenin and the entire refugee camp is cut off from water supplies because of the destruction of distribution networks, and repair crews are unable to access the affected areas.

A statement from the UN Human Rights Office on Saturday condemned the “use of unlawful force during militarized operations in the occupied West Bank and calls for an immediate end to the current attack on Jenin refugee camp. The ongoing … operation in Jenin refugee camp and adjacent parts of the city has led apparently to unlawful killings, insecurity for Palestinian residents and enormous destruction of the camp, home to about 11,000 Palestinians.”

Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch and long aligned with US foreign policy interests, called Israel’s attacks the West Bank a “flat-out war” with far-right members of the government aiming to expel all Palestinians from the territory.

“Even though there’s extensive combat between Israeli forces and militants in the Jenin refugee camp, that doesn’t mean there are no rules—the Geneva Conventions still apply,” Roth told Al Jazeera.

“One of the basic rules is Israel has to allow access to humanitarian aid. So it can’t just cut off food, water, electricity and medical care—as we’ve heard it’s doing. It has a duty to allow those for the civilian population. It can’t use the excuse of the fighters to starve civilians, and that’s what it did in Gaza.”

2 September 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – Israel has continued its military attacks on the Gaza Strip during its polio vaccination campaign, ignoring all calls to implement a humanitarian truce or a temporary halt to attacks during the vaccination hours.

Israeli aircraft and tanks continue to bomb the central Gaza Strip, the area where the polio vaccination campaign has begun. The campaign is a joint effort between the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the United Nations, including UNICEF, and non-governmental organisations, aiming to vaccinate about 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10. The campaign was launched in response to the confirmation of the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, contracted by a 10-month-old infant in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the Strip. The virus was found in water samples taken in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in late June.

Despite the World Health Organisation’s announcement last Thursday that Israel had consented to a series of “humanitarian truces” lasting three days each in the central, southern, and northern sections of the Strip in order to carry out a polio vaccination campaign that would benefit 640,000 children, Israel has continued its attacks.

Palestinian Rami Rashad Nofal has been killed, and several other Palestinians injured, during an Israeli air strike on Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, which was also the target of artillery shelling and at least three raids. The injured survivors were transferred to the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Together with shooting from Israeli vehicles that broke through the northwest of Nuseirat and from quadcopter aircraft, Israeli artillery also shelled the west of the new camp in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip.

Along with the ongoing shelling in various parts of the Strip, these Israeli military attacks have coincided with the peak of families’ movement with their children towards the designated vaccination centres. Some of these attacks have even targeted locations near the vaccination centres, endangering the progress of the vaccination process that is required to stop the poliovirus from spreading among Palestinian children in the besieged enclave.

Following its initial attacks, Israel is still targeting Palestinian clinics and hospitals where Palestinians are supposed to go for children’s vaccinations. The most recent incident took place at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Saturday 31 August, leaving three Palestinians killed and numerous others injured.

Deliberately initiating heavy military assaults during the vaccination campaign will undoubtedly make it more difficult for Palestinian families to get to health facilities and raise their anxiety, which might lead them to refrain entirely from going to these centres. This indicates that Israel has a clear and deliberate intention to thwart efforts to combat the virus and undermine the vaccination campaign. Additionally, these attacks are part of a larger plan aimed at exacerbating the man-made humanitarian crisis currently plaguing the Gaza Strip, preventing the alleviation of Palestinian suffering there, increasing the risk to the lives of Palestinian children and society at large, and intensifying the comprehensive crime of genocide that Israel is committing there.

The international community must pressure Israel to immediately cease its military assaults in order to guarantee that the polio vaccination campaign is carried out as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Israel bears full responsibility for protecting the lives and safety of Palestinian children from the virus, as this crisis is primarily the result of the crime of genocide it has been committing against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, which includes the destruction of basic infrastructure and the health sector, repeated forced displacement, and deprivation of all elements of human life, in addition to the ongoing arbitrary and comprehensive blockade

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

2 September 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

Since its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza began, the Israeli military has destroyed hundreds of historical and religious sites, and centers of culture and learning like libraries, archives, and museums.

Here’s a brief guide to Israel’s cultural genocide in Gaza:

1. Great Omari Mosque: Gaza’s oldest mosque and the second-oldest mosque in all of Palestine, the Great Omari Mosque dates back 1,400 years. It was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in December. In an instant, a place representing centuries of history — and housing dozens of rare books and priceless manuscripts — was reduced to rubble.
2. Church of Saint Porphyrius: This Greek Orthodox church was originally constructed in the 5th century, and its current structure was built in the 12th century. It is the oldest church in Gaza and is considered to be one of the oldest churches in the world. In the early weeks of the genocide, Israel bombed the compound where the church is located, causing a roof to collapse and killing over a dozen people sheltering inside.
3. Qasr el-Basha: Constructed in the 13th century, Pasha’s Palace was converted into a museum in 2010, housing precious antiquities like ceramics that dated back hundreds of years. It was all but reduced to rubble in an Israeli airstrike in December.
4. Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center: A hub for artistic life in Gaza, the center housed a library and theater and hosted art exhibitions and film screenings. It was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in November.
5. Central Archives of Gaza: Left in ruins after an Israeli airstrike in December, the archives housed historical documents dating back more than a century.

What is cultural genocide?

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was drafted in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust. It defines genocide as “physical acts,” such as killings or measures intended to prevent births, which are carried out with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”

When Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin first coined the term “genocide” in 1944, he described it as a “synchronized attack on different aspects of life.” Because genocide was aimed at the destruction of an entire people, it naturally includes attempts to destroy the targeted group’s cultural heritage, thereby erasing their very existence: from the destruction of national monuments like museums and libraries to laws banning the use of indigenous languages.

And yet, the U.N Genocide Convention that was adopted in 1951 does not address cultural genocide. The United States, with its mind on its own cultural genocide being carried out against the indigenous peoples of America, joined former empires like the U.K. and France in opposing any references to cultural genocide in the Convention.

Is Israel committing cultural genocide in Gaza?

We know that Israel’s assault on Gaza is textbook genocide. From the beginning, Israeli officials made their genocidal intent abundantly clear, and the Israeli government has carried out “physical acts” to put that intent into action: indiscriminately slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians, reducing entire cities to rubble and razing farms and orchards, and systematically destroying hospitals and other critical infrastructure essential for life.

At the same time that it has made Gaza unlivable, the Israeli government has intentionally targeted historical, religious, and archaeological sites, archives, libraries, museums, and centers for art and culture — in addition to destroying every single one of Gaza’s universities.

[https://twitter.com/JehadAbusalim/status/1740193112319029577]

We should understand these attacks on Palestinian heritage as evidence of Israel’s intent to completely annihilate Palestinian life in Gaza.

In South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, they make note of Israel’s attacks on  “centres of Palestinian learning and culture,” and call on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights including the heritage of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention.”

A land without a people?

Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the latest in what is a century-old war against Palestinians and Palestinian life — a war of annihilation in which attacks on Palestinian culture, heritage, and national identity have played a central role.

Successive Israeli governments have attempted to erase Palestinian existence and oppress expressions of Palestinian identity, from building Israeli universities on the ruins of ethnically-cleansed Palestinian towns and villages to criminalizing the Palestinian flag.

This is textbook cultural genocide, and it’s a core component of Israeli settler colonialism. Erasing Palestinian culture and history makes it that much easier for the Israeli government to lay claim to Palestinians’ homes and land and deny Palestinians’ historical connection and rights to that land.

Supporters of Israel have long denied the mass displacement and slaughter of Palestinians by claiming that Palestine never existed — that it was a “land without a people for a people without a land,” and that only after it was colonized did settlers “make the desert bloom.” The destruction and erasure of Palestinian culture and history is key to how Israel has carried out and justified its colonization of Palestinian land.

28 August 2024

Source: jewishvoiceforpeace.org

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

1)  Palestine was a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious, &
multi-lingual country targeted to be transformed it to a “Jewish state”.
The core of this project (Zionism) is thus ethnic cleansing which started under British Rule (to fulfil the illegal Balfour declaration) and
accelerated under more direct Zionism control. That is why we have 8
million Palestinian refugees and displaced people and 530 villages and
towns wiped out and 250,000 native Palestinians killed (ongoing genocide).

2)  International law is very clear: Palestinian Refugees have a right to
return to their homes and lands, Israeli colonial settlements built since
1967 including in Jerusalem are illegal, and Israel has engaged in
processes that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity

3) Israel has never been a democracy. It is an apartheid racist regime that even after expelling most Palestinians, have instituted 65 laws that
discriminate against the remaining native Palestinians.

4) Zionist propaganda is easy to refute with logical explanations based on facts (and the three principles above). For example, it is easy to answer the nonsense like Israel is “defending itself”.  Someone comes and shoots your brother, points a gun at your head and tells you to get out of your house and claim their religion tells them to do so. Then you are pushed down the street and they besiege you and stop you from getting food and medicine and test new guns on you every few years. You are not the aggressor if you resist. International law is clear on this point: colonized/occupied people have a right (and even duty) of resistance. Anyway colonization is itself violence: ask native Americans and Blacks in South Africa or any other country that went through the experience. Colonization kills 15 native civilians for every 1 colonizer. The answer is simple, end apartheid ends the violence (exhibit A: South Africa).

5) No colonial – anti-colonial struggle has ever ended in a “two-state
solution”. It is fictional and the TALK about it from the time that Ben
Gurion proposed it over 100 years ago is merely (as Ben Gurion himself stated on more than one occasion) intended for PR efforts (he even cited colonial treaties with native Americans which could be broken after consolidating powers).  Colonial-Native struggles end in one of three scenarios: a) Algerian model (nearly 2 million killed, 1 million colonizers and their descendants left the country), b) genocide of natives (USA, Australia), c) coexistence in one country of descendants of colonizers and of native people (the rest of the world >140 countries). There is no fourth scenario. Palestine will not be an exception. It is the last struggle and prolonged only because of the resourcefulness and wealth of Zionistsm western and Arab collusion, and the weakness of their victims.

6) If we want a roadmap to real sustainable peace (not pacification), all
we have to do is insist that we implement the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. It has all the needed elements (no discrimination, rights of refugees to return etc).

7) Palestine is important to 2.5 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims,
15 million Jews. It is also at a pivotal land bridge between Africa and
Eurasia. It is also important becausev the Zionist lobbies decapitated
international law and made western countries support a
horrific genocide/holocaust of our people (complicity). Thus, people around this planet developed joint struggle (including via a push for boycotts, divestment and sanctions) which could help end the nightmare just like it did with Apartheid South Africa.  But unlike there, if we do not succeed, then a catastrophic global war is coming.

It is really not that satisfying when one’s own predictions come true. In a chapter in a book titled “Moment of Truth: Tackling Israel-Palestine’s
Toughest Questions” published in 2018 (https://www.palestinenature.org/ar/research/B40.-Qumsiyeh-MomentofTruth.pdf),
I argued that another (15th) intifada is inevitable and hoped it would be
the last. But much earlier in my 2004 book “Sharing the Land of Canaan” (available free here http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/ ) I expressed the certainty that Zionist colonization will end one way or another. I explained that this can happen violently in very unpleasant way (like in Algeria) or will happen a bit less traumatically (though still violent) like happened in South Africa. This is merely a reading of history and is irrespective of one’s own emotional desires. I have been politically active for over 40 years now and in those decades have seen and argued with many Zionists. Few of them became post-Zionist or even anti-Zionist. I only
feel sad that I did not manage to convince too many of them who remained tribalistic (with that classic superiority-inferiority complex found in all colonial oppressors). A rather tectonic shift in awareness is happening to humanity as we collectively watch the utter depravity and insane behavior of the colonizers (demolishing high rise building, pogroms against non-Jews, children massacred, ethnic cleansing) facing heroic resistance from the indigenous people. Yet, it is still not clear that this sumud is enough to coerce the oppressors to abandon oppression or that the machinations of the oppressors that created the Oslo (Vichy) government would not succeed. Perhaps I was too optimistic to assume that popular resistance can succeed to end Zionism in a half-decent way. Perhaps the deep-rooted brain-washing of generations of colonizers and colonized makes it too hard to turn back. I hope I am wrong. But we Palestinians must face up to the reality that we have far more challenges than a well financed and
powerful Zionist movement that corrupted many governments to support oppression. We must acknowledge that the Zionist movement greatest success was facilitating the empowerment of a political elite group of Palestinians who hijacked a political faction (Fatah) and claiming representation of Palestine and do not want to pay the (financial) cost of repentance and return to sanity. Instead they continue to live in their delusions of importance and ignoring corruption all around them not even realizing that the end of such a road for them will be far more ruinous than the alternative. They need to learn the lesson of history of encounter with Zionism and its Arab facilitators. It is urgent. It is existential to them and to all of us (and indeed the whole of humanity). Zionism does not merely aim to control Palestine and ethnically cleanse it (when strong even of its own collaborators). Like previous colonial movements (see US as an
example) it is expansionist and aims for empire. No one will be safe even the collaborators and the facilitators as far as the Arab Gulf (and
certainly not Jews themselves yearning for normality).

Mazin Butros Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist and author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University where he teaches

4 September 2024

By Julian Borger and Sufian Taha

Israel accused of using a 10-year-old girl as a human shield as it carried out its devastating attack on the occupied Palestinian territory.

31 Aug 2024 – When Israeli soldiers arrived at the modest house along an alleyway in Nur Shams camp on Wednesday night, they sent the women and four of the children out into the street, but kept hold of Malak Shihab.

They took the muzzle off their dog and it went straight up to the slight 10-year-old girl and sniffed her. Terrified, she pleaded to be with her mother, but the soldiers seemed to have just one phrase in accented Arabic: “Open the doors.”

The platoon pushed her up to each of the doors in her aunt’s house, according to Malak’s account, while they remained braced behind her ready to fire at whoever might be inside. One door wouldn’t open, and in her desperation to obey, the girl remembers hammering on it with her head.

“I don’t know why. I just wanted it to open,” she said on Saturday, accompanied by her parents as she retraced her actions on the first night of the Israeli incursion.

The door was finally forced open with a rifle butt which left a hole above the handle, but there was no one on the other side and the soldiers moved on.

The IDF rejected the allegations of the Shihab family.

“Such events are inconsistent with the IDF’s code of conduct, and according to a preliminary inquiry this story is fabricated and did not occur,” a spokesperson said.

Similar allegations were made during an earlier incursion in Nur Shams in April, and were also denied by the army.

This was her most terrifying experience of an Israeli raid, but far from the first in Malak’s short life. The Nur Shams camp on the eastern edge of the West Bank city of Tulkarm, is known for its militancy. It has its own armed force, the Nur Shams brigade, a mix of followers of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other radical groups.

The raids on the camp, and two other militant strongholds on the West Bank, Jenin and el Far’a camp, were a particularly ferocious iteration of a pattern that has repeated itself through the decades.

Each time, the soldiers come looking for militants and usually kill a few, leaving devastation and traumatised civilians in their wake before withdrawing. The mess is cleared up, and the fallen fighters are quickly replaced by younger militants.

“Mowing the grass” it is called, by certain Israeli generals and pundits, and the cynical phrase is repeated on the West Bank by Palestinians with added irony as they are well aware they are the “grass”.

In the course of last week’s incursion, the IDF cornered and killed the Nur Shams brigade’s 26-year-old leader, Mohamed Jaber, better known as Abu Shujaa, along with four of his fighters, who Israel said would otherwise have mounted attacks on Israelis. The five men died in a gunfight at a mosque 50 metres from the Shihabs’ house.

Abu Shujaa’s death represented a significant success for the IDF, in need of positive news after 10 months of bombing Gaza without finishing off Hamas. The force had learned the lessons of the 7 October attack by striking first, the military briefers said.

The damage done to Nur Shams was also dramatic. The camp was first established in 1952 for those displaced by Israel’s independence war, Palestine’s original Nakba, or disaster. In the al-Manshiya district at the heart of the camp most houses showed signs of damage, and the roads had been turned into rutted rubble-strewn tracks by IDF bulldozers, sent in first to eliminate any lurking roadside bombs.

Each time the troops have moved in, more children in Nur Shams have been exposed to violence. In the last raid, nine months ago, Malak fainted from the smoke from a blast outside the family home. So this time, her father, Mohammed, sent her, her mother and siblings to his sister’s house. But she was no safer there.

Asked how she felt three days later, Malak said: “Scared but also angry. I don’t know why I feel angry, but I just do.”

By Friday, the soldiers had ended the latest raid and withdrawn and by Saturday the clear-up was well under way. The local bakery had reopened and was selling plastic bags of pitas or bread rolls.

The baker, who wanted to be referred to as Abu Jihad, recalled how the males from his family, young and old, had been rounded up in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and were taken with tied hands to a warehouse at one end of the camp. There they were interrogated about the whereabouts of the brigade and their arms caches, and kicked and punched in the process.

“There was no mercy, even on children. Why take a 13- or 14-year-old boy from his house and beat the shit out of him and break his phone?” the baker said, referring to his own son.

On the road outside, the camp’s main thoroughfare, bulldozers were clearing the torn asphalt and other wreckage, while cement lorries and sewage trucks crawled along in both directions. The phone company had set up a kiosk under a parasol to oversee repairs to the lines.

The small alleys leading up the hill, the capillaries of Nur Shams, remained clotted by decades of damage and the immediate trauma of this latest, most destructive attack. Black tarpaulins suspended along their length, a shield from the electronic eyes of Israeli drones, reinforced the overall sense of gloom.

“I have lived through the six-day war (in 1967) and two intifadas but I never saw anything like this,” said Um Raed, a 72-year-old woman sitting outside on a street of wrecked and burnt houses. “What can we do? We are patient, but we are also so very tired.”

In an open doorway nearby, neighbours stared at a mat of dried blood, the start of a broad rust-red stripe leading into the interior of a house.

It was the blood of Ayed Abu al-Haija, a 63-year-old man with mental health problems who had trouble understanding the gravity of the threat around him. His granddaughter had seen him standing in his doorway from an upstairs window on Wednesday afternoon and urged him inside.

But then she heard a “weird noise” and when she went downstairs, Ayed was lying on his back with part of his skull missing. His nephew Haytham believed he had been hit by an Israeli sniper firing from a high window up the street. The Palestinian health ministry estimates that 20 Palestinians were killed in last week’s raids, but did not distinguish between civilians and militiamen.

In his life and death, Ayed Abu al-Haija had embodied a cycle of violence which has, in every turn, taken the region further from a peaceful settlement. He had been imprisoned and brutalised as a youth in the 1970s, and his mind never recovered. That left him vulnerable to a sniper’s bullet half a century later.

As far as Haytham was concerned, the blame travelled much further back, to the British, who had promised land to the Jews that was not theirs to give, and whose rule over Palestine from 1920 to 1948 ushered in the state of Israel.

“Our tragedy is your responsibility. This blood is on the hands of the Britons,” he warned.

Nur Shams shows its recurrent trauma like rings on a tree. The route from the Abu al-Haija house down to the main road was lined with pictures of martyred members of the Nur Shams Brigade, each brandishing a rifle. Photos of Abu Shujaa and the four other fighters killed last week are likely to be stuck up alongside them in the coming days.

At the end of the alley sat the camp’s most likely future. In a semi-circle of plastic chairs, surrounded by admiring men and boys, was a young member of the brigade, in cap and black T-shirt, his black M-16 assault rifle casually balanced on his lap. He could not have been older than 20 and was pale from sleeplessness and lack of sun, his white skin marred by bruising on his right side – left by debris from a grenade blast, he said. He was brimming with confidence.

“The resistance is stronger than ever,” he insisted. “Every time they do an incursion it gets stronger. That’s why every incursion is worse than the one before. Abu Shujaa is gone, mercy on his soul, but 100 fighters will take his place. How do you think the children here will grow up? They will take a gun and go to the battlefield.”

2 September 2024

Source: transcend.org

By Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja

Monsters of History Defy Truth, Justice and Humanitarian Values

28 Aug 2024 – The Israeli-U.S. fraudulent scenario of a ceasefire ended at Cairo without any agreeable outcome. There was nothing new but to kill the time and opportunities for the return of normalcy and humanitarian necessities to have allowed the people of Gaza to breathe oxygen while the bombing and killing of civilians continues unabated. The so-called Arab leaders – the authoritarian “puppets” of the US never had the capacity to think outside the decadent box and question the Master about this stigma of war and its ultimate purposes to dominate the Arab world. The US and Israel are moving around all quagmires and forging it to ensure continued killing of the people of Gaza under false pretext of terrorism and allowing new settlements by settlers to strengthen Israeli command over the West Bank and to put a finished answer to Palestine freedom movement. Should Israel and the US be allowed to continue to commit crimes against humanity and genocide without any accountability? All monsters of history claimed good intentions and righteous ambitions but inflicted horrors, deaths and destruction on fellow human beings to achieve individualistic ambitions of power and glory. The US Congress bestowed undue political honor to PM Netanyahu who is alleged by the ICC -ICJ to have committed crimes against humanity and genocide across Gaza. Does the US Congress have a manifesto of human moral and political values?

Philip Giraldi (“War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu Addresses the US Congress” Global Research: 7/26/24), Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest explains:  “Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber today was by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States…….Netanyahu cliams ‘Hamas raped women and burnt babies alive’ but Dr. Giraldi views it a false propaganda stunt to win the US support for continued war against Palestinian people and clarifies:

The reality is, of course, it is the Jews who are killing Palestinians in large numbers using American supplied weapons. The highly respectable British medical journal The Lancet estimates that Israel has already killed more than 186,000 Palestinians since last October most of whom are still buried under the rubble of their homes, but for Netanyahu only Jewish lives matter. And the unrelenting savagery of the Israeli soldiers has also been confirmed by multiple independent sources. Bibi would also do well to read the new Knesset law passed last week that completely rejects the idea of a unilaterally declared sovereign Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel, confirming that Israel’s intentions do not include living at peace with its neighbors. https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-criminal-netanyahu-us-congress/5863708

Israel and US will not Stop at Gaza and Arab Leaders are Just Waiting for the Unknown

Gaza and West Bank are obliterated by Israeli insanity over ten months of continued war and bombardments of civilian infrastructures. The Arab-Muslim leaders had no mind, wisdom and courage to challenge Israel for its planned onslaught of Palestinian masses.They profess friendship with Netanyahu against Israeli animosity.The Arab leaders appear morally, intellectually and politically bankrupt as a scum floating on a torrent of naive puppets and discredited leaders. The American-Israeli collaborative war on Gaza and its immediate consequences made the Western world and all of its institutions shamefully redundant and void in the 21^stcentury global norms of civility, human rights, freedom, justice and safety of civilians- whereas crimes against humanity are captured in obscure impulses and indecision and deliberate inaction by the UN Security Council. Is the global community heading towards unthinkable man-made disasters as no international law, no humanitarian value or Geneva Conventions apply to Israel and the US for accountability? If Israel is not stopped, soon the leading oil exporting Arab states could fly Israeli-American flags for a change. Please see: “Israel Lost the War and America Betrayed Humanity in Gaza.” https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2024/05/15/israel-lost-the-war-and-america-betrayed-humanity-in-gaza.php

Those Bombing the Earth are the Enemies of Humanity and Peace

Israel so far, has dropped more than 70,000 ton of bombs on Gaza- more insane than what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War 2. Perhaps, the Israeli and American leaders do not believe in life and death and accountability to God for all of their actions. The Torah and Bible fully reflect on this core human responsibility and punishment to those who violate the Divine Covenants. The Earth is not a property of the US or Israel but a  Divine hub of human Life, Survival and a Trust, Those Bombing and Destroying it are mentally sick and defy the Divine Truth. It looks as if the US and Israeli leaders do not believe in life and death and accountability. The earth is living and spins at 1670 km per hour and orbits the Sun at 107,000 km per hour. Imagine, if this spinning fails, what consequences could occur to the living beings on Earth. Think again, about the average distance of earth from moon is 93 million miles -the distance of Moon from Earth is currently 384,821 km equivalent to 0.002572 Astronomical Units. Earth is a “trust” to mankind for its existence, sustenance of life, survival, progress and future-making. The Earth exists and floats without any pillars in a capsule by the Will of God, so, ”Fear God Who created life and death.” Is human intelligence still intact to understand this reality? Wherever there is trust, there is accountability. All human beings are accountable for their actions. The Divine warning (Chapter 7: 56: The Quran), warns: Do no mischief on the Earth after it hath been set in order, but call on God with fear and longing in hearts; For the Mercy of God is always near to those who do good. (44:38-39).The Divine Message (Quran:40:64), clarifies:

It is God Who made for you the Earth as a resting place and the sky as a canopy; And has given you shape and made your shapes beautiful, And has provided for your Sustenance, of things pure and good; Such is God your Lord. So Glory to God, The Lord of the Worlds.

And killing of innocent people is prohibited in the Ten Commandments (Torah):

‘Thou shalt not kill’ (Exod. 20:13; also Deut. 5:17). Jewish law views the shedding of innocent blood very seriously, and lists murder as one of three sins (along with idolatry and sexual immorality), that fall under the category of yehareg ve’al ya’avor – meaning “One should let himself be killed rather than violate it.

“Phase One of Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza has ended. Phase Two has begun. It will result in even higher levels of death and destruction” reports Chris Hedges.

Chris Hedges “Israel Reopens the Gaza Slaughterhouse.” Chris Hedges Report: 12/05/23:

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/israel-reopens-the-gaza-slaughterhouse?utm_source=post-email title&publication_id=778851&post_id=139349128&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=b7lbz&utm_medium=email

This is not a war against Hamas. It is a war against Palestinians.

Israeli strikes are generated at a dizzying rate, many of them from a system called “Habsora” — The Gospel — which is built on artificial intelligence that selects 100 targets a day. The AI-system is described by seven current and former Israeli intelligence officials in an article by Yuval Abraham on the Israeli sites +972 Magazine and Local Call, as facilitating a “mass assassination factory.” Israel, once it locates what it assumes to be a Hamas operative from a cell phone, for example, bombs and shells a wide area around the target, killing and wounding tens, and at times hundreds of Palestinians, the article states.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: One Humanity and the Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution,  Dec 2019.

2 September 2024

Source: transcend.org

By Dave DeCamp

According to flight data, there’s been a spike in US arms deliveries to Israel since the end of July 2024.

29 Aug 2024 – The US has been rushing weapons shipments to Israel since the end of July, Haaretz reported today, citing open-sourced aviation data.

The report said that the spike in arms shipments made August the second busiest month at Israel’s Nevatim Airbase for US deliveries since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began back in October 2023 following the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Dozens of US military transport flights, as well as Israeli civilian and military and cargo planes, have landed at the base, mainly traveling from Qatar and the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

The Haaretz report appeared to attribute the rush in arms shipments to US preparations for a potential Iranian attack. The US has deployed additional fighter jets and warships to the region and is vowing to defend Israel from Iran’s response to the Israeli assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, on Iranian territory. Following a major exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday, the US is still expecting a reprisal attack from Iran.

Besides helping Israel prepare for a potential attack from Iran, the US weapons shipments also help fuel the slaughter in Gaza and Israel’s operations in the West Bank, which significantly escalated on Wednesday. Israeli forces launched their largest attack on the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada in the early 2000s.

The rush in arms shipments also shows strong support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been working to prevent a ceasefire deal with Hamas, and shows President Biden and Vice President Harris are not serious about ending the slaughter in Gaza.

The Israeli Defense Ministry said on Monday that the US had delivered over 50,000 tons of weapons and other military equipment since October 7. The ministry said the US support was “crucial for sustaining the IDF’s operational capabilities during the ongoing war.”

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of antiwar.com.

2 September 2024

Source: transcend.org